With the U15s squad hampered by long-term injuries, the journey to Hertford was very much an unknown entity. A re-scheduled match from earlier in the season, U15s could only muster 10 players for the half-term fixture – with two of these new additions to the team.
Reed won the toss and elected to bat.
Daniel Vincent and Oscar Lamb opened the batting against rapid pace. With Daniel seeing off the majority of the seam deliveries, Oscar fell to a quality catch for a duck, followed quickly by Daniel after being deceived by a spinning delivery. Reed were 5 for 2 in the 4th over.
Unfortunately, Reed never really got started, and it was the wayward deliveries from Hertford which brought respectability to the score-line.
Stanley Johnson (8) Charlie Cannon (8), Aaron Nash (6), Oliver Tallis (10), Luke Parker (7), Lily Hall (5) hauled the score to 96 for 8 at the end of 20 overs.
Sub-100 scores are always going to be difficult to defend, so Reed were dependant on getting early wickets.
Crack-bowler Lily Hall opened the bowling and was extremely close to taking a wicket with the first ball…. But after a number of near-misses, Lily finished on 3-0-23-0.
Luke Parker, Charlie Cannon and Stanley Johnson were equally unlucky – and with a missing fielder, runs (and boundaries) were in plentiful supply for the Hertford openers.
With both opening batsmen approaching forced-retirement on 40, it was new-player Vicky Stevenson who forced a mistake, taking a wicket with her first over of bowling.
Hertford strolled to victory in the 10th over, finishing on 96 for 1 from 9.3 overs.
Match Report submitted by Lee Vincent.
